Although motorized wheelchairs are well known in the prior art, the typical motorized wheelchair is simply a conventional wheelchair with a motor provided to drive the wheels. Typically, the motorized wheelchair has an electric motor powered by a battery. A typical wheelchair has a pair of small, freewheeling wheels at the front of the chair and a pair of larger; drive wheels at the rear of the chair. The drive wheels are typically very narrow gauged wheels, similar to bicycle wheels, and are mounted directly to the frame of the chair. There is no suspension system included to allow any vertical motion of the wheels relative to the frame of the chair and, therefore, the wheels do not do a very good job of absorbing shock from hitting objects, such as rocks or obstructions or curbs, or ruts in a dirt road. Also, the narrow gauge of the wheels makes it very difficult to maneuver the chair in soft road surfaces such as sand, gravel, snow, or mud. Therefore, while the typical motorized wheelchair works adequately in an urban environment traveling down sidewalks and crossing streets where there are curb cutouts, it does not do well in a rural environment or a wilderness environment where there were no paved roads or sidewalks.
As can be appreciated, it would be desirable for a motorized wheelchair to be suitable for use in "off-road" or rural environments. Such a wheelchair would have a suspension system for the wheels that absorbs the shock of striking objects or road hazards. Another desirable feature would be a seat lift to ease the entry and exit of the chair user from the chair seat and a suspension for the seat to ease jarring for persons with brittle bones. The motorized wheelchair should also be adaptable to many different types of control mechanisms.